Letter: Beach pass revenues keeps beaches accessible, safe and clean

Monday

Jun 25, 2012 at 12:46 AM

Gordy Schleissing

Editor: A recent letter decrying the county policies as they pertain to beach parking appeared a little short-sighted and not thought through. The writer indicated that there was a significant problem with beach access because of over-restrictive beach-use policies and cost-prohibitive beach pass requirements.

The last time I looked we had a number of beach driving ramps giving access to the sand. Accordingly it was suggested that if these policies were dropped the so-called problems would solve themselves with no cost to taxpayers. I guess they didn't realize that the beach pass revenue supports important services such as public safety by our law enforcement, trash pickup, beach cleanup activities and ramp access maintenance. Of course, if these were not supported by the beach passes we could pay for them with additional taxes. Stating "no cost to tax payers" without this revenue as the writer suggested would be difficult if not impossible.

As for Mother Nature creating the beaches as the most "perfect parking lot" as the writer also mentioned, I really don't think this was nature's intention. Or, would the writer prefer we pave over the sand and paint parking lines? The coast is indeed everyone's to enjoy but humans are not the only ones that use them. The limited restrictions we all endure to protect the wildlife living here long before us are not that much of a burden.

I, for one, hope these restrictions give some hope for my grandchildren to enjoy seeing the wildlife in their natural surroundings before we squeeze them out completely.

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